Monday, September 14, 2009

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TC50: YourVersion Wins Peoples' Choice Award In The DemoPit Top
The second company to emerge from the TechCrunch50 DemoPit as a peoples’ choice winner is YourVersion , a discovery engine that looks to help recommend new content based on your past searches and interests. The company was among the top two recipients of TechCrunch50 tokens, which are used by conference attendees to vote on their favorite companies in the DemoPit, and shares today’s Peoples’ Choice Award with oDesk . YourVersion launched today, and looks to help users search for content across blogs, multimedia sites, Twitter, and other social sites, updating with relevant content in real-time. Rather than force users to run the same searches multiple times or rely on a clunky bookmark system, YourVersion pays attention to your interests, and presents results accordingly. You can browse through results from all of these content sources, indicating which ones you like (or dislike) using thumbs up or thumbs down functions. For mobile users, YourVersion offers an iPhone application, which you can download for free on the App Store here . There’s also a Firefox extension that allows users to quickly share their favorite blog posts and news articles on Facebook, Twitter, and other services. Q: So it’s like Digg and reddit without needing user submissions? Do you have commenting? A: Yes, this also helps prevent the editorial tone you get on those sites. We will have comments in the future. Q: How do you get more passive discovery? A: There’s a line between implicit and explicit. You’ve got thumb, share, etc as explicit. Below that is implicit — if people repeatedly go to the same sites again and again on the same topics, that’s a good indicator. Video: Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: DemoPit Winner oDesk Launches A Real-Time Work Stream For Your iPhone And Desktop Top
Each year we see hundreds of impressive applications to TechCrunch50 — unfortunately, we always have a number of great companies that deserve attention but don’t quite make the cut as finalists. That’s why we have our TC50 DemoPit , where we invite a few dozen other strong startups to demonstrate their wares in the conference building’s main hall. Each conference attendee is given two TechCrunch50 tokens — one for each day — which they use to vote on their favorite startups in the bunch. We then tally up the votes and give the top two companies the chance to present on stage. The first winner for today is oDesk , which is today launching a new iPhone application that allows project administrators to monitor the work stream of their team members while they’re on the go. The stream features photos of your team’s workplace, keystroke events, and lets you know when your workers are checking in and out. Alongside the launch of the iPhone oDesk will also be bringing the new stream functionality to the desktop with a desktop app. oDesk has been around for a while, offering a “marketplace for talent” that makes it easy to hire workers remotely. The company currently has over 340,000 providers, with 12,200+ jobs that are open. Video: Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: Mota Motors Takes The Pain Out Of The Used Car Marketplace Top
It’s not often that you hear about innovation in the used car space, but Mota Motors , a new site that’s launching today at TechCrunch50, has managed to pull it off. Mota’s multi-faceted service effectively holds your hand through the entire used car buying (or selling) process, offering a level of trust and convenience that has been difficult to achieve on traditional peer-to-peer car sales channels like CraigsList or Ebay. And with that trust comes some options that used car buys previously haven’t had: using Mota, you can elect to finance a used car — something that you’ve previously only been able to do through deanship used car lots, which typically charge a 20-30% markup. Here’s how it works: Mota has a database of car listings from multiple used car sites, which you can browse through much as you would on a site like Autotrader. But rather than simply aggregating these listings, Mota adds a layer of intelligence to the process. Say, for example, you happen upon a sedan that you’re interested in purchasing. Mota will analyze the text of the car listing and suggest questions that you should probably ask the seller. If the listing only has one photo, Mota will likely suggest that you ask for a few more. If the car you’re looking at has a history of brake issues, it will suggest that you ask about the last time the brake pads were replaced, and so on. The next thing Mota does is help establish trust in the deal. Through the service, car sellers can elect to have their cars inspected at an independent repair shop for around $75 to determine if there are any outstanding problems with the vehicle (Mota already has a national deal in place with PepBoys). From there, the seller and prospective buyer can determine who should pay for any necessary repairs. And this certified inspection also opens the doors to allowing finance and extended warranty companies, which historically have only been been able to offer their services to car dealerships, which perform their own inspections. Mota also offers features directed towards people who are looking to sell their cars: it can effectively write your car listing for you, using sentences that read like an actual human wrote them. And it makes it easy to syndicate your car listing to multiple sites, suggesting an asking price based on current market conditions — CEO Reza Bundy says that the average sale time fro a car can get cut from eight weeks to eight days if you sell it using the proper parameters. The site does a number of other small things to help streamline the process, like using Facebook and MySpace to look up profile photos of buyers and sellers, to help give them a more human face. Though all of this, Mota is making money. The site gets paid for lead generation to the repair shops that verify cars, as well as from the car sites themselves for the transactions that it helps mediate. And because the car inspection process tells Mota any problems with a car that’s being purchased, it can offer buyers coupons for any repairs they might need — again driving more leads to repair shops. And the service is driving customers to financing and warranty companies (all of this is opt-in for the user). All in all, the future is looking bright for Mota. The site has already forged deals with some of the nation’s top car sites, including AutoTrader. And the company has a very solid team behind it: Bundy founded IronPlanet , a successful marketplace for used heavy machinery, and VP Marketing Rafael De La Cruz was one of the key executives behind Vitamin Water parent company Glaceau before it was acquired by Coca-Cola. Q:Are you focused on the seller or the buyer? A: Both. The buyer can instigate the process. Q:Why wouldn’t I just go to carmax? A: It’s a dealer, you’d pay 30% more. Most people are doing peer to peer deals now, to get more money for their cars. Q: How did the text in that description get generated. A: We parse the data, look at the keywords. Compare to the most questions to answer. We have have some modular prewritten sentences. Some are seasonal — if you have convertible selling in the summer,we’ll promote that. Video: Other Coverage: TC50: Mota wants to curb "lemons," fix the used car market VentureBeat. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: Short On Cash? Startups Can Trade Goods And Services Instead Of Money On TheSwop Top
For most startups just getting off the ground, cash on hand is extremely limited, to be reserved for only the most essential expenses. But that doesn’t mean these fledgling companies don’t have an abundance of talent. TheSwop , a new site making its debut today at TechCrunch50 , is looking to help these startups and other growing companies trade ‘favors’ to each other, in whatever fields they specialize in. These can run the gamut from advertising and business planning to graphic design and development, or resources like office space. Because exchanging goods and services this way can be a tricky business — you wouldn’t want to swap time with one of your extremely talented developers for work by a shoddy designer — TheSwop features one-on-one videos of each of its subscribers so that you can see the “whites of their eyes” before you consider a deal. Each subscriber also has a transaction history, as well as reviews left by other members. Another key feature, given the nature of many of these services: the site offers a map of each of its possible service providers, with paid subscribers (who are likely more trustworthy than free users) highlighted with larger markers. Using the site is simple: you run a search for whatever you’re looking for, and then use the site’s virtual currency (called “favor points”) to trade for that. You can also perform transactions with cash if you’d like — the site doesn’t force you to use its platform, so you can take things offline to finalize the deal. Roelof Botha: I don’t like it. Money was invented for a reason, we’ve seen people try to use beans etc. and it doesn’t work. I wouldn’t invest. Marc Andreessen: Why limit it to startups? How do you ensure currency keeps its value? A: If you’re a large company you’d probably use a larger barter exchange model. When you enter the site you get a certain number of points, you can buy more, but we won’t just flood the system with points. Tony Hsieh: How do you make money, or at the end of the day do they owe lots of favors? A: We’re freemium. Everyone can use for free, but you can pay to every larger map markers, other premium features. Paul Graham: Why don’t you just let people buy favor points. A: We’re considering that. Andreessen: One thing barter companies in dot com era discovered is that there is a role for price discrimination — there are certain things that aren’t otherwise going to be available on the market, or would be charged for differently. A: These would be the types of services that every startup needs. Video: Outside Coverage: TC50: Startups can trade favors at TheSwop.com VentureBeat. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50 Backstage: We Pry Skype Info out of Marc Andreessen (or Try) Top
Getting a meeting with Marc Andreessen isn’t easy so I made sure I cornered him and shoved a camera in his face backstage at TechCrunch50 to ask him about his new life as a VC . It’s been seven weeks and one day, and so far, he says he loves it and it’s fun. Of course, as he notes, seven weeks in there’s no expectation that companies will have exited and it’s not enough time for any of them to fail yet either. Andreessen also reiterated what Ron Conway said earlier : There’s no dearth of funding for good start-ups in the Valley. More on why he did that Skype deal and what he’d rather hear TC50 companies talk about in their pitches on the clip. CrunchBase Information Marc Andreessen Information provided by CrunchBase CrunchBase Information Andreessen Horowitz Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: RefMob Launches Social Media Driven Marketplace For Referrals Top
RefMob is launching at the TechCrunch50 event today a service that allows business owners to make more noise about their paid referral programs online while at the same time giving more people the opportunity to earn bonuses for referring people using social networking apps. RefMob enables people to share paid referrals that they know of for a variety of business categories, like bonuses for getting new apartment tenants or driving more job applications to a company looking to hire, instantly on Twitter and Facebook. The general idea is to let people leverage the tools they’re already using to keep in touch with each other for sharing referrals and consequently making arrangements for splitting the financial gains between them. The big plus for companies is that they get an easy way to create a paid referral program online that they can easily distribute via their customer base, essentially magnifying the reach. They can easily measure the success of these programs in a handy dashboard and evaluate results for future programs. Expert panel Q&A: Q – Paul Graham: I like the idea, and I can see business getting excited about this. But which ones are you going to be able to convince? A: We have found there are lots of small business owners who struggle with their social media strategy and we can help them. Companies who conduct business online are obviously a good match for our service. Q – Marc Andreessen: What does a business do to get started? A: They sign up, create a referral and distribute it to their customers by e-mail. Q – Tony Hsieh: It seems unnatural friend behavior to institutionalize this type of thing? A: Well they do work, although admittedly not in every industry. We just want to magnify the effect for those who it would work for. Video: Pictures: Extra coverage: Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: Job Seekers Pay LocalBacon To Apply For Jobs (And That Might Just Work) Top
As an employer, chances are you use sites like Craigslist or Monster.com to try and get the best candidates for vacant spots. If that’s indeed your modus operandi for recruitment, than you’re probably also used to receiving bad or incomplete resumes, applications from totally unqualified persons or just utter spam. LocalBacon thinks it doesn’t have to be that way, and believes the solution to the problem is making job seekers pay to apply for jobs. Launching at the TechCrunch50 event today, LocalBacon wants to remove the clutter from the inboxes of many a manager or HR professional looking for the right person to put to work while at the same time giving job seekers the opportunity to stand out from the crowd in their quest to land a good position. The way they want to achieve that is by both increasing the quality of applications and decreasing their amount by charging potential candidates $0.99 (or more based on interest/demand) to apply. If you think about it, making potential candidates cough up cash – well, virtual currency in the form of credits – for applying is a solid way to weed out the ones that apply just for the sake of applying even if they know they’re not really qualified for the job. It also decreases the chances for employers, who get to post job openings for free, to get sent incomplete or sloppy resumes because applicants would likely make more of an effort having put some money on the line. This in turn means solid candidates have a better shot of getting noticed in the first place. Aside from the fairly innovative business model, LocalBacon also offers a pretty amazing lightweight program for employers to keep on top of applications across vacancies and applicants for managing their profiles and resumes. LocalBacon uses a standardized listing format and application process that is aimed to reduce the amount of time it takes for job seekers to search and apply for openings. Job seekers also receive specific contact information about the hiring manager, real-time updates about the status of their application and timely concise feedback regarding their application. Expert panel Q&A: Q – Roelof Botha: I like the idea of turning the job board concept upside down. No one seems to be satisfied about it. Think about clever ways to extract more value. I really like it though. Q – MM: I want to complement the app, but I have a question about the social component. How are you going to work social behavior into the service? A: Facebook is a potential way to go, and we’re thinking more about referrals. Q – Tony Hsieh: It doesn’t seem to fit with Zappos to have job seekers pay for applying? A: Certain cultures might conflict what the job seekers paying. But remember they wouldn’t Q – Paul Graham: Is the chronological listing of incoming applications scalable? A: We’re in early stage right now, so we’re thinking of ways to add more features for organization for premium users. Q – Tony Hsieh: Do you integrate with existing ATS systems? A: Yes, we can (with APIs and such). Video: Pictures: Extra coverage: Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
Oddly, TwitterFon Changes Its Name to Echofon Top
One of the first really great Twitter iPhone apps was TwitterFon, created by Naan Studio. The app saw success, as did its sister application, TwitterFox, a plug-in for Firefox. Both have been downloaded over a million times, and both apparently have over 200,000 daily active users. But today, both are changing their name, to Echofon. The reasoning behind the change is a little odd. Naan Studios apparently wanted to unify the names of the products, but why not simply change TwitterFox to TwitterFon? The company says it got feedback and went with the “Echo” name, but both apps still are based around Twitter, so unless they’re planning to move off of (or go beyond) that platform, it just seems like it will confuse users to remove the “Twitter” part of the name. More likely, it seems like this might be a move to avoid any kind of legal problems with Twitter. As we’ve written in the past, Twitter is apparently okay with you using the word “tweet” but they must protect their trademark of “Twitter”. Still, something like “TweetFon” seems like it would have been a better fit. But a nice part of this change is behind the scenes, this new different Echofon apps will talk to one another. From the company’s blog post: As Echofon, these applications will talk to one another, unread tweets stay in sync between the applications. Imagine using Echofon while browsing the Web with Firefox, you read some tweets before running off to lunch. At lunch you are waiting for your food and check Echofon on your iPhone, because the apps sync with one another, you will be shown the tweet where you left off at home. Echofon now supports iPhone Push Notifications for both mentions and direct messages on Twitter. Unfortunately, this feature will only be on Echofon Pro (the paid version of the app), they say they are working on bringing Push support to the free app too. All that sounds great, it’s just too bad they had to switch to such an odd name. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50 Backstage: Marissa Mayer Talks Fast Flip Top
We grabbed Google’s Marissa Mayer backstage just after her launch of Fast Flip. Michael asked her about that name change, Google’s on going innovation with news online, and whether any big players did not want Google using their content with this new product. Her product manager was also on camera. Mike’s question to him? Rate Mayer as a boss on a scale of one to ten. It’s just not TC50 until we get someone in trouble with his or her boss. The video is on the jump. CrunchBase Information Marissa Mayer Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: Yext Offers Local Businesses A Smart Inbox For Phone Calls Top
Yext , a popular local business search engine that for some reason managed to stay under the radar so far, is launching a new product dubbed Yext Calls at the TechCrunch50 event today that’s bound to raise some eyebrows. Local businesses can use the Yext Calls software to process incoming phone calls and organize them based on semantic analysis of what was said during the conversation, providing them with an easy way of searching or browsing through them at any point. Based on keywords that occurred in the call, the software can detect that e.g. price estimates were requested for a car repair or which part of what type of vehicle the caller was having problems with exactly. The program can even automatically detect if any appointments were made during the conversation, giving the local business owner or representative an easy way of scheduling their calendar based on relevant keywords that were used during the call. Ultimately the analysis of the phone calls helps Yext make their flagship product, the local business search engine which they claim gets visited by over a million users a month, more detailed for visitors and at the same time more effective for listed companies. Basically the data that gets drawn from the phone calls analysis helps business owners get more qualified leads via the search engine. The way this works is that a local business owner can indicate that a call was relevant to his core business by giving it ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’, which in turn leads Yext to better decide if they want to show the company in the results when a specific keyword gets used in a search or not. I personally think this is a great way for Yext to automate the improvement of their search engine’s accuracy while at the same time providing huge direct and indirect benefits for local business owners. It also helps that the service is basically free and listed customers only pay per call received. Expert panel Q&A: Q – Roelof Botha: who transcribes the phone call? A: the answer is: we leverage several core platforms, totally automated. The business answers the phone calls. Q – Roelof Botha: are you helping local business with their SEA/SEM campaigns too? A: our partner network takes care of that side of the equation. Q – Paul Graham: you already have an existing business that’s making a lot of money? A: Yes, $20 million in revenue and growing fast. But we are a startup, expanding into a new territory: pay-per-action phone calls. We only charge for actions that are relevant to the local business owner. Q – Roelof Botha: how do you convince business owners of your value proposition? A: it’s an end-to-end solution for them to advertise smarter on the Web. Q – Marc Andreessen: is there adverse selection? are the merchants who are most likely to want phone calls least likely to get the web to get them? A: We found most merchants overall prefer to receive phone calls. Q – Paul Graham: why local business, and not national ones? A: Some are suited for that, but mostly if they work with local dealerships for example. We focused on Yellow Pages categories. Q – Paul Graham: What’s the biggest of the 12 categories you support now? A: Health and fitness. Video: Pictures: Extra coverage: TC50: Yext transcribes, searches phone calls for local businesses VentureBeat. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: RedBeacon Lets You Hire Local Service Providers Online, Without Any Phone Calls Top
The web is loaded with sites offering listings and reviews for local services, with mainstays like Yelp and Craigslist leading the pack. But when it comes to actually executing a transaction with one of these service providers — establishing details like establishing a price and timing — most people still turn to their phone books to call the service. RedBeacon is a new service making its public debut today at TechCrunch50 that further streamlines this process by bringing the OpenTable model of online transactions to much broader spectrum of services. Using the site will be easy for anyone who has used a local review service like Yelp . Simply type whatever service you’re looking for (be it plumber, gardener, or hair stylist), and the site will present a list of recommended service providers in your area. RedBeacon also employes natural language processing so it can figure out exactly what you’re looking for (for example, “Cupcake maker” would search for any bakers in the area). The site will then present a list of proviles for each match, featuring reviews and comments from other users, basic information like their hours, and star reviews imported from Yelp. To figure out exactly how much a given service will cost, you first detail what you’re looking for and the site begins an auction among the matching providers, where each bids on how much their fee will be. Once you’ve picked a provider, you can schedule your time online, without having to ever pick up the phone. The site also has a feature that allows you to quickly find workers for projects that don’t require any training. Say, for example, you needed someone to hand out 500 cupcakes at TechCrunch50. RedBeacon would let you post a job, and then would automatically ping RedBeacon members in your vicinity to see who was available. They could then respond with a price quote, as well as an ETA for when they’d be able to perform the task. The site is launching today in a limited beta, inviting local services to fill in their profiles. And in two weeks, it will launch to the public, allowing anyone to start hiring local providers. Q: How do you get over the chicken and the egg problem? A: We’re launching two weeks early to invite providers to join before opening to the public. Also don’t need to necessarily have lots of providers, just need some in each category. Q: How do you reduce friction A: Can receive Email or text message notification. Just enter the time and hit submit. It’s also complete free for them to respond to jobs and create a profile. Q: ServiceMagic seems to be the same idea. A: Started in the mid 90’s, started by IAC. They charge service providers lots of money to sign up initially, and charge every time they receive a lead, even if they don’t win. Q: Is there a class of job you anticipate being especially popular? A: In the Bay Area, household services (handymen, maids, gardeners). But never know how people are going to use your products. Q: Have you thought about focusing on specific verticals? A: Yes. We’re reaching out to strategic verticals (less than five). But we’ll support virtually any occupation. Video: Pictures: Other Coverage: TC50: Need someone to mow your lawn? Redbeacon creates a market for local services . VentureBeat. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: Control Any PC Game With Your iPhone With iMo Top
One of the cooler iPhone apps to launch last year was SGN’s iFun , which let you use your iPhone or iPod touch to control games on your computer screen. But iFun only works with SGN’s own games like iGolf. A new startup, iMo , launching today at TechCrunch50 , expands the ability to all PC games. Most PC games are still played using the mouse+keyboard combination. A lot of hardcore gamers like this experience, but more casual users prefer controllers like you find on consoles. The most popular of those out there right now is the Nintendo Wii, undoubtedly thanks to its motion-based control system. With iMo, you can bring a similar experience to all PC games thanks to the iPhone and iPod touch’s accelerometer. Another nice thing about using the iPhone or iPod touch as your controller is that it’s much more portable than traditional PC controller hardware. If you want to play a game on your laptop on the go, for example, but don’t want to lug around a joystick, you could simply use iMo, which is on a device you’re probably already carrying around. The system also features onscreen controls for the iPhone and iPod touch too as every PC game won’t benefit from using things like the accelerometer, obviously. This all works via both bluetooth and WiFi connections between your device and your computer. The plan is to offer iMo in the App Store for $0.99, the first version should be available new in the App Store. And long-term, the company hopes to make it available on other mobile platforms as well including Android. And ultimately, they’d love to include support for gaming consoles as well, like the aforementioned Wii, the PS3, and the Xbox 360. Despite a glitch at the conference that prevented iMo from doing their presentation initially, iMo easily had the most crowd-pleasing presentation of the day. Co-founder Himanshu Baweja rocked the crowd, showing off the demo set to music like “Eye Of The Tiger,” “Danger Zone,” and “In Da Club.” Expert Panel Q&A (paraphrased) The experts: Marissa Mayer, Roelof Botha, Marc Andreesen, Paul Graham, and Tony Hsieh. RB: Controlling a lot of things with the iPhone is turning into big business. TH: I imagine the whole club becoming MA: Grand Theft TechCrunch Q: PC games not console games, right? HB: Yes, right now PC games only, but we’re looking at consoles. Q: Where are you from? HB: We are from India. Q: How does it work? HB: It’s an iPhone application that you run and it sends the data over WiFi to your PC. There is software that people install on their PC to accept the signals. MM: Gutsy presentation, went off really well. Exciting to push the limits of these devices. Video: Other Coverage TC50: iMo turns the iPhone into a joystick for your PC games VentureBeat. iMo Is Great For Games, IMO#tc50 techgeist. CrunchBase Information iMo Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
A Visual Way To Search Google News. They Called It Flipper. Now It's Google Fast Flip. Top
Back in June, we broke the news that Google was working on a new visual way to display Google News then called “Flipper.” Today, at the TechCrunch50 conference, Google’s Marissa Mayer formally launched the product now known as Google Fast Flip . As we wrote previously, the service puts a new face on Google News. Imagine going to a newsstand and looking at all the magazines lined up, only here, it’s screenshots of actual articles. And while the thumbnails are small initially, you can click to zoom in on any of them and actually see how it looks on the actual page. Obviously, you can click-through to read the entire article on its actual site. The name “Fast Flip” comes from the idea that with this visual look, you can easily flip through the news. If you find an article you like that looks interesting, you click through to read it, if not, just flip left or right to go to another. And it is fast. Really fast. If you do like an article, there is a “like” button, similar to that functionality on FriendFeed and Facebook (the smiley face is built into the logo). You can also easily email any article to a friend. Obviously, as this is Google, there is also search functionality built into Fast Flip. One interesting aspect of this is that it’s likely to reward sites and authors that use good visuals (which I’d like to think I do) in their stories. Also, the more you use Google Fast Flip, the smarter it will get to things you like. Not all publishers will like the idea of Google doing this, as news companies such as the AP love to complain about the amount of content that can be legally shown as an excerpt in places like Google News. These Fast Flip thumbnails show much more content than a regular Google News search result excerpt, but only pages from publishers who opt into this service will be shown. And those publishers will get a share of the revenues from ads shown beside their content on Fast Flip. TechCrunch is an initial partner as are others like BusinessWeek, The New York Times, and US Weekly, among others. There is also an iPhone-optimized interface for Google Fast Flip. Google was nice enough to point out our initial scoop of this news today at the TechCrunch50 conference. Interestingly enough, “flipper” is still in their Google Labs URL. And you’ll also notice the “Google confidential!” in the image below. Video: Images: Other Coverage Google News 2.0: Fast Flip Screenwerk. Google Tries to Enhance News Browsing With Fast Flip PC World. Google launches Fast Flip news website Telegraph. Google unveils Fast Flip for newspapers and magazines LA Times. Google turns a new page in online news content Times Online. Google Launches Fast Flip To Accelerate News Browsing Information Week. Google's Fast Flip Trick Reuters. Google lets readers “flip” through the news USA Today. Google’s Fast Flip Dips Publishers’ Toes in Google’s Own Ad Revenues Content Bridge. Breaking: Google FastFlip Web Search Android Guys. Google hopes readers will ‘flip’ over new format SeattlePI. Google Releases News-Reading Service New York Times. Google Fast Flip Goes Live; Experiment In News Reading And Revenue Sharing paidContent. Google Fast Flip: Reading Online a Bit More Like Print Businessweek. CrunchBase Information Google News Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: Udorse Leverages Facebook Photos For Social Product Endorsements Top
Billed by its founders as a ‘visual endorsement engine’, Udorse is launching today at the TechCrunch50 conference a couple of months after word got out that the startup raised half a million dollars in seed funding from The Founders Fund and convinced Peter Thiel to join its board of directors. So what the heck is a visual endorsement engine and why on earth would anyone need it? Udorse allows you to link your Facebook profile to your account using Facebook Connect, enabling the web service to fetch all the photos that you share on the social network as well as the ones that your friends have shared with you. Items in the photos can then be highlighted using the Udorse dashboard, after which they function as actual online product endorsements – or ‘udorsements’ as the startup refers to them – made by yourself, publicly. In other words: showing anyone who cares what you think is cool. In the example shown on stage, Udorse co-founder Geoffrey Lewis picked a photo of him and a friend who works as a fahion designer. Endorsing in this case is done by selecting an item – the dress she’s wearing – and identifying it with a description and associated brand name, with the extra ability to add links and commentary to the highlighted item. Every time someone sees the photo and clicks the associated Udorse icon or link, they are able to gather more information about the product or directly be referred to the website where it can be bought. Udorse also comes with a useful search engine that allows you to browse product endorsements made by your social circle based on type of item, brand or tags that were used to identify products. When someone ends up on a product website from a Udorse partner brand – which any type of business can easily sign up for online – following a referral link on a ‘udorsement’, the person who highlighted the item is entitled to 25% of the commission fee in case this person purchases the product as well. The referrer can choose to get cash payment for the tracked referral on his PayPal account or instantly donate it to charity. Udorse is going live today with Armani and American Apparel. In my opinion, this is a really well thought-out concept that fits the social nature of Facebook perfectly and particularly the hugely popular photo sharing activity on the social network. Expert panel Q&A: Q- Marissa Mayer: I really loved it. I always thought that this was one of the way social networks going to raise money. Q-Paul Graham: Are there places where you can and cant run these photos? Technically- A: Can serve them on the Facebook platform, working on plug-ins for blogs, behind the scenes it depends on Javascript. Q-Tony Hsieh: I thought this was one of the more passionate presentations. But I think its weird for you to get paid for me to dress like you as your friend. A: You can opt in to share endorsements. You can also donate the revenue to a charity. Tony Hsieh: It’s sort of creepy, wearing the same outfit as your friends. A: The technology will let you see other items from different stores and brands. Q_Marc Andreessen: Do you have any thoughts on distribution? A-We have a part-time journalist on staff to figure out who are the top influencers who share photos on line. Partners, like American Apparel, are also excited about pushing the app out to users. Q-Marissa Mayer- Apparel might be a big space, but also electronic gadgets might be good for this. You might have a model around cooperative buying. A: In the end, we are aiming towards anything that can be included in a picture. Q-Paul Graham: Are there classes of sellers who are particularly excited about this? A: We’re getting traction from apparel retailers, hoping to make progress with additional brands. Video: Pictures: Extra coverage: TC50: Udorse lets you tag your photos with product endorsements VentureBeat. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: Gift Card Auction Site Rackup Aims To Shake Up Market Top
Leveraging the power of the Web, behavioral economics and an applied branch of game theory called auction theory, Rackup is surfacing today at TechCrunch50 with a bold play on online auction platforms and the audacious goal to disrupt the $100 billion gift card market with it. Unlike most web services in this field, Rackup isn’t about offering a trade or resale platform for gift cards but does something unique, basically offering the auction winners a way to always get more value than they pay for no matter what. The goal: bringing the ‘Black Friday’ feel into people’s lives online, every day. How it works: basically people bid on the value of gift cards in very fast auctions. The person who bids first, gets the advantage of gaining more value on his or her gift card the more bidders join in. As long as the person stays in the top 10 for a gift card, there’s an additional bonus on top of the value of the gift card. Rackup offers a dashboard where people can manage and see the history of their auction activity. The bottom line: the money is already being spent on these brands, so why not take a couple of seconds in our lives to get more value out of existing gift cards of retailers. Although the company has remained in stealth up until today, it has signed up over 20 customers for the beta product, including many familiar brands like American Airlines, Nespresso, Nike Golf and Travelocity. Rackup's team is lead by Marc Rochman and is supported by a board that includes Stanford Prof. Paul Milgrom , one of the most prominent experts in auction theory, and Duke Prof. Dan Ariely , author of "Predictably Irrational" . The company raised early-stage funding from the founders and some private investors, amounting up to $3.5 million . Expert panel Q&A: Q – Jason Calacanis: is this legal? A: Yes, because it’s not gambling. You don’t pay to participate, can only win more value, and you can’t lose money. Q-Paul Graham: So People don’t have to pay to bid, not like Swoopoo? A: The average discount is around 18 percent, the discount for retailer is flat. We charge an auction fee to the retailer. Q-Mark Andreessen: What do you think about your marketsize? A: Last year the figr car market was was $100 billion so this is a growing segment. Sending online gift cards is a new way to give and spend spend money. A: We get around 8 percent of each transaction. We are signing contracts with retailers, will get hope to get a large portion of giftcard transactions. Video: Pictures: Extra coverage: TC50: RackUp sells gift cards in fast online auctions VentureBeat. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: HealthyWage Pays You To Get In Better Shape Top
Healthcare is one of the top social and economic problems facing Americans today, as the rising cost of medical care and health insurance in the United States continues to significantly impact the livelihood of many of its citizens in one way or another. America spends a dazzling $2.4 trillion annually on healthcare, 75% of which is estimated to go to chronic, largely preventable diseases like obesity, diabetes, smoking-related diseases, sleep disorders, stress and so on. So what would happen if individuals were offered a financial incentive to improve their health, driving down the immense cost of the system down the line? HealthyWage is launching at TechCrunch50 today a way for people to take ownership over their own health and get rewarded up to $1000 for it in the process. On the company’s website, people can register and complete a health risk assessment which identifies ways for them to improve their health. The individuals are then supposed to return to the website daily and enter specific data (e.g. what they ate, their activities throughout the day, drug compliance etc.) as part of their participation in a program created by Harvard physicians. After a year of participating in the program, successful consumers can earn up to $1000. Besides the direct financial incentive for them, they’d also be in better shape, which should result in a decline of health expenses over time. First challenge that is seeing its debut on HealthyWage today: a BMI Challenge, designed to help people lose weight and get rewarded for it if they succeed. Overweight Americans or the companies they work for can put in $200 on the ‘bet’ that they’ll get to a certain BMI (Body Mass Index) and ‘lose’ all that money if it doesn’t pan out. If they achieve the targeted BMI – helped by friends and relatives and even their doctors through the system – they get their money back fivefold. The company intends to make money not only off the ‘losers’ (people who pay to participate in the program but don’t actually complete the challenge successfully) but also from selling the (anonymous, aggregate) health history and daily health data to drug and food manufacturers, retail companies, healthcare providers, diet companies etc. and by running targeted advertising campaigns from these companies on their website. This is definitely an intriguing (and potentially controversial) idea, and I can see this really taking off when employers start to see the benefit of offering such challenge programs to their workforce. Expert panel Q&A: Q – Tony Hsieh: I would do this at Zappos, we see healthcare costs rising. You may want to figure out how to separate the incentive from the need to logging in on a daily basis. A: we’re open to ideas on how to reward people, cash or other prizes. The big idea is getting people in the habit of being mindful about their health, we tailor tips etc. It’s about wellness. Q – Marc Andreessen: how do you translate it to a company’s bottom line? A: A 20% or 30% decline based on our data. Q – Marc Andreessen: do you have a sense of how much money is required to get people motivated to change their lifestyle? A: Small amounts of money works, but it’s more about the support, the acknowledgement of the money. Q: Why wait a whole year to pay people? A: A year forced it to be a lifestyle change and not a short-term thing. We want to build a foundation, lead people to change their behavior long-term and keep their motviated. Q – Marissa Mayer: I’m skeptic. There are tools for people who are already motivated, what’s to stop Weight Watchers for offering the same service? A: their business model is different, focused on consumers, while we focus on companies/employers. In terms of addressable market, there’s a lot of room in the U.S. and incentives work. A program this comprehensive is unique in our view, and we’re confident people will embrace it. Q – Roelof Botha: Mind that foreign health insurance companies are already implementing similar programs. A: The U.S. is different, consumers are hesitant to participate if the program goes out from the health insurance companies, even if lower premiums are the incentive. Video: Pictures: Extra coverage: TC50: HealthyWage lets companies incentivize employees to stay fit VentureBeat. Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: SeatGeek Is The Farecast For Sports And Music Tickets Top
Lots of people purchase tickets for events like sports games, rock concerts, etc. on secondary markets like eBay or StubHub, where they can often be picked up at huge discounts. Of course, it’s a bit of a challenge to know when to make a move and buy tickets exactly. The main problem with buying tickets on secondary markets is that you have no clue if they reached their lowest price already or if you should be well off exercising some patience and let the price drop a bit more. Enter SeatGeek , launching at the TechCrunch50 conference today, which offers a service that basically forecasts ticket prices on secondary markets so you can make educated decisions on when to break out your wallet. SeatGeek developed a bot that crawls hundreds of secondary market websites every day to aggregate information on transactions like the amount of money tickets are going for and other factors that have an effect on pricing. The startup actually takes into account a very broad set of relevant factors. For instance, when they track baseball games they not only trace the prices of tickets but also if the game was on a weekend, what the weather was like, who was pitching and so on. SeatGeek can go over this multitude of records in their database and analyze historical price points for events, enabling them to forecast what the pricing pattern for secondary tickets is going to look like for future similar events. Buyers can sign up to get notified when the price drops to the rock bottom as predicted by their system and simply purchase only once it does. And the good thing is even sellers can benefit from the forecasting model because they can use it to determine when they should be unloading their tickets. SeatGeek offers a free version for buyers and will soon release a premium version for brokers and other sellers. SeatGeek also gets 7 to 10% of ticket sales thanks to affiliate relationships with ticket brokers. They’re also preparing the roll-out of a ‘ticket insurance’ product, where users get compensated if SeatGeek doesn’t provide accurate forecasts. Expert panel Q&A: Q – Roelof Botha: I like it, like I like Farecast (which did pretty well). Is your goal to become the primary site to go to to get tickets, and wouldn’t that hurt the brokers? A: we’re helping them, we’re doing marketing for them. We’ve spoken to them and they’re supportive of what we’re doing. Q – Paul Graham: What percentage can you predict, e.g. baseball games? A: In average, 40% of baseball games that are sold out. Overall, I don’t know. We’re directionally correct 80% of the time. Q – Marc Andreessen: How high is up? How big can it get? A: The size of the secondary ticket market, $15 billion a year. Q – Paul Graham: why do you make a consumer website, why not use it and resell tickets yourself? A: We thought about it, but the downside is the initial capital injection. Half the battle is acquiring tickets, brokers are good at it and we’re not it, so we focus on providing tools to help them and buyers. We think the opportunity is bigger by not doing it ourselves and letting consumers use our tools. Video: Pictures: Extra coverage: TC50: SeatGeek tells you when to buy tickets VentureBeat. Crunch Network : CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: DataXu Optimizes Ad Bidding, Buying Across Exchange Platforms In Real-Time Top
DataXu is a Boston-based startup founded by a couple of tech entrepreneurs and MIT alums who are committed to making waves in the online advertising landscape by debuting the first real-time ad optimization system working across exchange platforms from the likes of Google, Microsoft and Yahoo. Essentially, the aim is to bring more power to advertisers – rather than publishers – who are looking to increase the ROI of their online ad campaigns by making it easier for them to make fast decisions based on qualitative data and act on them virtually in real-time. Ad exchanges serve to float unsold and/or undervalued inventory in a pool to be bid upon by advertisers. On the marketplaces, sellers get guarantees about the impressions that will be sold for the highest bid price above the specified reserve, and buyers can use the exchange to supplement their online campaigns with low-cost impressions. The DataXu platform values, bid manages and buys ads on an impression-by-impression basis, across the major ad exchanges and based on smart algorithms. The platform is said to be capable of processing hundreds of thousands of "ad decisions" a second, each returned in under 100 milliseconds, through automated, campaign-specific algorithms. Founded in 2007, DataXu has raised $7.8 million to date from venture capital firms Atlas Venture and Flybridge Capital . The startup has been running its system in private beta on Yahoo inventory, is about to add Google’s upcoming Ad Exchange platform – which they say is in fact launching in the next few weeks and will be processing “hundreds of billions of dollars” a day – to the mix and has just added Havas to its roster. Expert panel Q&A: Q – Marissa Mayer: On a technology level, it looks impressive. My questions is: are you targetting people? Ad buyers can build their own data profiles, so you can tweak it to fit your core audience. The Internet is becoming more dynamic, and what we’re doing fundamentally is make decisions quickly, change campaigns in real-time and learn from past behavior. Q – Paul Graham: What’s the rocket science behind it, the core engine? A: Our system is designed to find the features that matters for brand, really custom. Advertising is not a one-size-fits-all, you need dynamic, intelligent algorithms. Q – Tony Hsieh: We’ve dealt with third-party pixels at Zappos, and it causes problems. How do you deal with that? A: As soon as we can tie data together, we can work, so it doesn’t have to be pixel ads. Q – Marc Andreessen: What’s your sales model? A: we can paid on a CPM basis, like an ad server, but a percentage on the lift. Video: Pictures: Extra coverage: TC50: DataXu optimizes ad campaigns in real-time VentureBeat. Crunch Network : MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily. TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: 5to1 Lets Publishers Regain Control Over Unsold Ad Inventory Top
Remainder aka remnant advertising are not exactly widely known terms, but the average person browsing the web for content knows perfectly well what it is. Anyone who’s ever browsed their favorite news site and has been exposed to advertising units that seem totally off base with the publisher brand, or even completely – even if unintentionally – juxtaposed to the content that’s being viewed has been a ‘victim’ of ads that were placed just to fill up unsold ad inventory, which is what remnant advertising comes down to. 5to1 , a startup with a high-profile founding team that includes former Fox Interactive execs Jim Heckman and Ross Levinsohn , has raised $4.5 million in seed funding to work on a solution that can turn remnant advertising into premium advertising. The company’s breaking out of stealth mode today at TechCrunch50 with a service that could rid both publishers and advertisers of the extremely ineffective ad campaigns that are basically only beneficial to the networks selling them. The 5to1 system allows publishers to get in between the remnant networks and the ad inventory to give them more control over what will appear on the site, where and when. The company’s founder and CEO Jim Heckman dubs it a “Match.com meets iTunes for advertising” because it allows publishers to dynamically create ‘playlists’ of ad units of sorts and easily run both proper ads and potentially placeable remnant ads on variable places on their website(s). Ultimately, the goal is to make it easier for content publishers to increase the quality of – and with it, the revenue that comes from – the ads that appear on unsold inventory without too much hassle. And if it takes off we’ll see a lot less of these horrible screaming ads that you’d never click on even if they held you at gunpoint. Expert panel Q&A: Q – Marissa Mayer: At Google, we agree that optimization can be done. However, what technology do you have for matching content to advertising, and how can you provide for larger-size networks with lots of inventory? A – Jim Heckman: We’ve been in stealth for a year, but we’ve noticed that publishers like hearing about being able to match advertising with context and having control over it. We didn’t want to compete with the Google model, but we’re more like iTunes: you ‘play’ ads whenever you want. It’s no different than what Web 2.0 has done for content. So if you’re a tech blog on gadget, you can see what ads work for gadget news sites specifically. It’s not algorithmic, but more of a marketplace. Q – Roelof Botha: Can you demonstrate better CPMs? A: We can find ads so fast, even with hundreds of thousands of ads in the system, literally in seconds. You can drag and drop ads right in the rotation. We talk to publishers and they tell us that even if we get similar CPMs but just prettier ads that don’t curse with the content, they’d already be happy. But talk to us again in six months. Q – Tony Hsieh: Does it take a lot of time for publishers to deal with your system, and what about scale? A: We showed publishers in our beta test that it doesn’t take a lot of time to manage their advertising units on unsold inventory. They want to be involved, and they seem to be motivated with the speed of our system. The key thing is: the compiled results of the entire network shows the context of just one ad in seconds. Q – Paul Graham: Humans can only do worse than the best optimization, right? A: Pages are dynamic. What we found is that a vast majority of ads are not contextual, and we can fix that. Q – Marc Andreessen: Regarding the chart, which side do you lean most to? A: All inventory is not created equal, but I’d say just in the middle. Video: Pictures: Other coverage: TC50: 5to1 gives publishers more control over their ads VentureBeat. Crunch Network : CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50 Panel: The Internet Is Killing Itself Softly With Remnant Ads Top
In between startup sessions at TechCrunch50 , we are hosting a number of heavy hitters in a panel titled ‘Creating scarcity, value and brand protection as we face limitless ad inventory” in collaboration with AdMeld. On the panel we have Michael Barrett from AdMeld, Kenneth Fuchs from Sports Illustrated, Kal Patel from Best Buy, Peter Foster from Hi5, Jim Heckman and Ross Levinsohn from 5to1 and Aaron Broder from Gorilla Nation. TechCrunch CEO Heather Harde is moderating. Talking about the dilemma that remnant ads pose to quality publishers, Ross Levinsohn cautions: “In many ways I think the Internet has killed itself to a degree because there was a notion that I will just add another page without maximizing the premium spots.” Live blog : Kal Patel is talking about Twelpforce, an initiative from Best Buy that taps into the essence of Twitter to leverage customer service. Ross Levinsohn : Advertising doesn’t always work. Sometimes algorithms don’t function because it lacks a human touch. Big brands and advertisers need that, to not have machines take over where and when there advertising units appear. Peter Foster : How low are we willing to go. It comes down to what are you wiling to accept and what aren’t you. The real challenge to us as a publisher is to find a network that is truly premium. Heather Harde : What percentage of inventory are you direct selling? Kenneth Fuchs : We sell everything direct. Peter Foster : We end up selling 5 to 10 percent. Aaron Broder : Premium programs go beyond selling a box ad. It is really about connecting your ad with a marketer’s messaging. You obviously have to listen to the publisher and what they want. Michael Barret : Typical publisher at AdMeld has 100 million impressions plus they can not sell directly, and they have direct sales forces. We’ve built this platform that allows publishers to tap into all of these different sources and concentrate on their direct selling. Jim Heckman : You’re talking about campaigns that are built custom, programmed with a publisher. Something that will be complementary to the brand, ads that the user will relate to and not tune out. When I was at MySpace, we had a 100 million (billion?) unsold ad impressions. Silicon Valley creates companies looking at the whole world of advertising, we are approaching a trillion unsold pieces of inventory. When you have a nice ad followed by a fat belly ad after the sold inventory runs out, that hurts the publisher. 63% of all ads aren’t even looked at anymore, Consumers are tuning out. 90% of all ads are unsold, they are machine-based and pushed. So there is uplift, but when you disperse it among the inventory, the individual publishers are hurt. Ross Levinhson : AT Fox Sports, 70% of the inventory was sold. If we sold out all the remaining inventory, I think in 2003, it meant only $250,000 in revenues. We made a determination that a quarter of a million dollars at that time wasn’t worth the hassle of policing it. On MySpace, we had to create scarcity where there was no scarcity. So we had the homepage, ad networks were arbitraging. Tom shut that down, no more ad networks on that inventory. If you have a site like Hi5 or MySpace or Facebook, creating billions of impressions a month, you have to find a way to create some scarce inventory so you can talk to the Best Buys. They don’t want to be next to [remnant ads] In many ways I think the Internet has killed itself to a degree because there was a notion that I will just add another page without maximizing the premium spots. Kal Patel : We look at how does it actually show up in front of our customers. Jim Heckman : What has happened is we are selling a small percentage of our quality content, and everything else is going to the remnant networks. Peter Foster : Also back in the day there were a few dozen ad networks, now there are 500. That is the challenge, there are so many companies doing great work, but it is all being back-filled by the same inventory. Jim Heckman : I think Ross is right. Creating scarcity in any business is essential. I think you are better off not selling an ad at all on your front age and protecting your ad integrity. If you are Sports Illustrated and you have a story by a top writer with beautiful images. Do you really want to put a yellow teeth ad up there? Heather Harde : it is certainly every publisher’s priority to sell as much inventory in a direct basis as much as their content will support. Audience Q: Do you see a trend of moving away from measuring in terms of impressions versus other measures? Heckman : Unfortunately, we are measured on impressions and clickthrough. I saw a company that looks at hover-over and things that cause people not to leave the site. So we need to start looking at things other than CTR. Patel : There is going to be a next generation of things people use to measure because the connections to consumers that is improtant. We haven’t seen anything too exciting, so it is call-out for innovation. Heather Harde : For smaller companies with 1 million pageviews a month, it is easy to get the remnant networks like the ADBrites, but how do we Heckman : The advice is to get bigger. Broder : You have to understand what your goal is. If you are a small site you might be able to better direct sell your site. Then if you think there are vertical networks that can direct sell your site you should contact them Barrett : Normally an ad agency won’t look at a site unless it can generate 4 to 6 million uniques. Heckman : The IAB unit is so low that CPM is not going to work for you. Harde : one thing we focus a lot on at TechCrunch is the real time stream. How is that changing the ad landscape? Barrett: I think the way that business used to be done, fax order, insertion order, approved by SI department of creative approval, sent out to Time Inc dept. of creative approval, no. When you are talking real-time, you are taking a little bit of risk not being able to see the creative ahead of time, but you have to have the ability to shut it down if it doesn’t appeal to your sensibility, all of those things are good. Video : Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 
TC50: Clicker Wants To Be TV Guide For The Web Top
More and more television content is making its way online. But because of different deals by various networks, it’s all over the place. Even the huge sites like Hulu, only skim the surface in showing what is out there. Clicker , a service launching today at TechCrunch50 , wants to be the most comprehensive way to find the video content you’re looking for on the web. While there are no shortage of video search engines out there, Clicker believes its offering is superior because it creates a structured database of programming, organizing shows by things like network, genre, and show name. This type of data not only allows for better search results, but it allows you to browse content without having to do text-based searches, which you probably won’t be doing when television and future web-enabled tablets start to serve up this content. Clicker already has a deal with Boxee. The goal is really to be the best search engine for video content. Clicker will point you in the direction of whatever you are looking for (and will do embeds if they’re available), but won’t serve up the videos themselves. They will also delve into surfacing content not explicitly produced for television, but is still high quality web video content. But they don’t want to be YouTube, which is cluttered with user-generated content. Clicker is going for a different market. Clicker will also allow users to edit and submit information about shows wiki-style. As a search engine, the business model will obviously be search and display advertising. But eventually, there is a plan for Clicker Pro premium accounts, which the company envisions might be used for storing you favorite videos online, kind of like a DVR of sorts. CEO Jim Lanzone (former CEO of Ask.com) and COO Paul Wehrley presented Clicker today on stage at TechCrunch50. Expert Panel Q&A (paraphrased) The experts: Don Dodge, Yossi Vardi, Ron Conway, George Zachary, and Jason Hirschhorn. Q: Is this automated? JL: Where content resides is always changing, a lot of it is automated, but we have to find stuff too. Q: How do you monetize. JL: We’re looking at the IMDb model. And eventually we’ll have a Pro version. And there’s a downstream model since we’ll be sending a lot of traffic. Q: What do you think about Bing? JL: That’s not fair. I think it’s fantastic for pushing beyond 10 blue links. A lot of it looks familiar though. Q: How do you get the market penetration? JL: Part of it is branding, some of it is distribution deals. We’ll also be very heavily SEO’d. Q: What’s the business model? JL: It’s mostly advertising, and we’ll get into Pro later, again. But IMDb makes $75 to $100 million in just what they do. Q: Is this funded? JL: Yes, earlier this year Benchmark and Redpoint – $8 million. Q: Would you invest? JH: This is a big problem for web video. RC: Great product. YV: I can never predict if products will succeed so I bet on people. Jim is a good one to bet on. Video: Other Coverage: TC50: Clicker is a TV guide for the Internet age VentureBeat. Clicker Guides You To Internet TV #TC50 Techgeist. Clicker's Guide to Online Video Technologizer. Stealth Report: TV / Video search engine Clicker AltSearchEngines. Former Ask.com CEO Lanzone Launches Video Search Engine paidContent. CrunchBase Information Clicker Information provided by CrunchBase Crunch Network : CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0 TechCrunch50 Conference 2009 : September 14-15, 2009, San Francisco
 

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